Purpose
To address the paradox that represents a shortage of women in management and senior leadership positions around the world, while research has consistently shown that having women in positions of influence leads to noteworthy organizational benefits, as guest editors for this special issue, we provide an overview of four key streams of cross cultural research on gender—women in international management, anthropology and gender, women’s leadership, and women’s entrepreneurship—which have been fairly well-developed but remain underexplored.

Design/methodology/approach
Each author led the review of the scholarly literature stream that aligned most with personal research areas of expertise, while particularly focusing each literature review on the status of each body of work in relation to the topic of women and gender in international business and management.

Findings
We encourage future work on the role of women and gender (including gay, lesbian, and transgender) in cross cultural management, and the influence of cross cultural matters on gender. In addition to new research on obstacles and biases faced by women in management, we hope to see more scholarship on the benefits that women bring to their organizations.

Practical implications
New research could aim to provide specific evidence-based recommendations for: how organizations and individuals can work to develop more gender diversity in management and senior positions around the world, and encourage more women to start and grow bigger businesses.

Originality/value
This is the first article to cover these topics and review the body of work on cross cultural research on women in international business and management. We hope it serves as a useful launch pad for scholars conducting new research in this domain.